Strange Paint

Last weekend I repainted the bookstore's counter surface. With the drying time of all the coats of primer and paint, the last brush stroke went on 12 hours before the store opened again. But this is an annoying period in the annals of painting. In the 1990s certain chemicals were banned from the US market for their impact on the environment and other, far less effective formulas took their place. This orange is a "water-borne alkyd" that takes up to six days to fully harden. Thus during the week, things laid on the counter stuck to it and left marks. Hopefully three days will suffice to harden it this time.

As someone who has earned a living by this work, this is like returning to the experiences of painters in my great grandfather's time. The term "water-borne alkyd" is ridiculous to me. I know that the environment should come before the convenience of painters, but here I am, a painter using strange paint in the young century, and if I don't ventilate a complaint, who will?